U.S. senators questioned the safety of Tesla's autopilot system

This article is transferred from: Economic Reference Newspaper

According to Reuters, two US senators sent a letter to Elon Musk, CEO of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, on the 8th, expressing deep concerns about the safety of the company's autopilot system Autopilot and fully automated driving system (FSD).

U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Ed Markey said in the letter that they were bothered by Tesla's design options that appeared to encourage unsafe driving habits. Tesla's self-driving system allows vehicles to drive at low speeds past stop signs, the letter said.

Under regulatory pressure, Tesla recalled 54,000 cars last week, updating software to prevent vehicles from ignoring stop signs. However, Musk said on Twitter that there are no security issues with this feature.

Tesla has now tested its upgraded autopilot system, FSD, on public roads, but the system has not yet achieved full self-driving. The security of Autopilot and FSD has drawn multiple investigations from U.S. regulators.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) asked Tesla in January to provide more information on allowing vehicles to launch touchscreen gaming features while driving, which involves 580,000 vehicles, which Tesla has previously stopped. Last August, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched a formal investigation into Autopilot's safety concerns, involving 765,000 U.S. vehicles, following multiple accidents involving Tesla vehicles.

The two senators said in the letter that the complaints and investigations paint a confusing picture: Tesla's constant rollout of software that doesn't adequately consider risks and potential cues poses a huge safety threat to all road riders. Senators have asked Musk to respond to a range of questions about his design and programming by Feb. 22.

Musk said at the end of January that Tesla's most important product this year and next year is not cars, but software that supports self-driving and robotics. Musk predicts that self-driving software will become Tesla's most important profit point.

Reuters reported that some Tesla owners bought $12,000 worth of self-driving packages. 60,000 Tesla owners are testing the latest version of autopilot software.